Prints reveal other facet of Robinson

Sunday

Celebrated for her distinctive storytelling abilities, Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson is one of Ohio's best-known artists.

Celebrated for her distinctive storytelling abilities, Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson is one of Ohio's best-known artists.

Her personal stories -- told in her signature folk-art style paintings, assemblages and books -- serve as signposts for tales shared by us all.

But Robinson also creates prints.

"Aminah as Printmaker," at Hammond Harkins Galleries in Bexley, underscores this often-overlooked aspect of her talent. The biggest surprise in the selection of woodcuts is the lack of color. Every print relies on the inherent visual contrast found when using black ink on white paper. The result is a dramatic body of work.

Nowhere is this better realized than in her "Brooklyn" woodcut series. In Wrappin' Hair, Brownstone Stoop, Come Sunday and Tell the Angels, Robinson concentrates on simple, seemingly uneventful moments. But the scale of the works and their strong, graphic dynamism reveal that such moments have importance beyond what one might expect. They speak of the human condition and the continuity of human experience.

Other pieces investigate various print processes, including chine-colle, a technique in which the image is transferred to a surface bonded to a heavier support.

In Tattoo Animal, a thin blue-green sheet of rice paper is glued to a heavy white-paper stock. The image of a stylized animal is printed on top.

Many pieces were inspired by travel. The series "Jerusalem: People of the Book" features portraits from the Holy Land. The woodcuts resemble a group of unnamed saints and prophets.